Recent Updates

Builders who conducted their own Phase I flight testing who say that the last few hours of that endeavor did not involve sitting there watching the hour meter tick toward 40 are either being dishonest or involved in a project really stretching technological boundaries. For those building a “typical” modern Experimental, where the airframe and […]

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer Joby Aviation has received a $55 million extension on its contract with the U.S. Air Force. The extension is the company’s third, bringing the overall contract value to a maximum of $131 million. The recent agreement also includes provisions for the delivery and operation of up to […]

The first uncrewed test flight of SpaceX’s integrated Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket ended in a dramatic explosion shortly after launch on Thursday. While the cause off the company’s latest “rapid unscheduled disassembly” has not yet been announced, it appears as though Starship failed to separate from the rocket as planned. The vehicle hit […]

SpaceX has scrubbed the first launch attempt of its integrated Starship launch vehicle and Super Heavy rocket, citing issues with the pressurization system. The attempt was called off less than 10 minutes before launch, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk noting via Twitter that a “pressurant valve appears to be frozen.” SpaceX says it is targeting […]

Nearly two years after beginning its mission, NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, successfully completed its 50th flight with a 145.7-second hop on April 13. The rotorcraft flew for the first time on April 19, 2021, marking the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. Originally expected to survive for just five flights, Ingenuity […]

As aptly summed up by air racing pioneer and three-time winner of the Thompson Trophy, Roscoe Turner: “There is no excuse for an airplane unless it will fly fast.” The SX300 does all that and then some. Heck, it looks blazingly fast just sitting on the ramp! Designed by Ed Swearingen, whose career and accomplishments […]

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have released the names of the astronauts selected to crew the Artemis II mission to fly by the Moon. The team will include mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Hammock Koch from NASA and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from CSA. The first crewed […]

Like a lot of kids, I dreamed of flying. I used to ask for a flying car for Christmas every year. As an adult, that dream didn’t fade away. Now I’m a 23-year-old private pilot with my own airplane—a Van’s RV-6. After a lot of work, I made my dream a reality. Growing up, it didn’t […]

Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky has announced plans to produce a fully autonomous hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) prototype. According to the company, its Hybrid-Electric Demonstrator (HEX) will be used to evaluate “large aircraft design, novel propulsion systems and control architectures for sustained hover, and ranges greater than 500 nautical miles.” The prototype is expected […]

You remember the bicycles hanging under the wing, right? You may not remember that the yellow-and-red high wing carrying those bikes was the Murphy Radical prototype, even though it was on our cover way back in the October 2017 issue of KITPLANES. But everyone seems to remember the bikes. Well, no bikes this time, but we’re taking another look […]